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REMINISCENCES 



OF 



MRS. LOUISA CUNNINGHAM. 



BY EX-GOVEK]srOR B. F. PERRY. 












GEEENVILLE, S. C. 

J. C. BAILEY'S BOOK AND JOB PBESIS. 

lS7i 



K^EIVIIIVISCEIVOES 

; OF 

' MRS. LOriSA CUMiafGIIAM. 



This accomplished and patriotic lady deserves more 
than a passing (ib ituar y notice, which I have been 
requested to write by her talented and distinguished 
daughter, the Regent of the Mount Yernon Association. 
I knew her well, and enjoyed her warm and disinterested 
friendship for nearly the half of a century. In the course 
of a long life, I have never met a lady of higher social 
qualities, or purer sentiments of duty and patriotism. 

Mrs. Cunningham departed this life on the 6th of 
October last, at her old family mansion, "Rose Monte" 
in Laurens County, South Carolina, in the eightieth year 
of her age. She was the wife of Captain Robert Cun- 
ningham, distinguished for his weai^i, culture aifd noble 
hospitality. He lived in baronial style, surrounded by all 
the luxuries which fortune can give. His house was 
ever the resort of friends and acquaintances, from the 
lower and upper country, who always met a most cordial 
and hospitable reception, and the longer thev staid the 
more welcome they were. He was a gentleman of great 
public spirit and charity, as well as hospitality and friend- 
ship. D'lring the war of 1812 he raised a volunteer 
company and entered the service of his country. He 
adopted and educated several of his own and his wife's 
nephews and nieces. The Hon. William L. Yancey and 
his brother Benj. C. Yancey were among them. 

Mrs. Cunningham was the daughter of Col. "Wm. 
Bird, of Pennsylvania, who moved to Georgia in 1796. 
His family was one of great social distinction and 
wealth in Pennsylvania, and ihowcvof his sisters married 



into the families of signers of tlie Declaration of Amer- 
ican Independence, lieed,^f Delaware, George Ross, 
and Judge Wilson, of the Supreme Court of the 
United States. The family mansion of the Birds, in 
Birdsborough, is historical, and was one of the most 
elegant residences in the Colony. Mrs. Cunningham 
was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and was six years old 
when her father, who was a younger son and inherited 

^^ H.<i»8 of the patrimonial estate, moved to Georgia to seek 
his fortune in a new country. THe mother of Mrs. Cun- 
ningham was a daughter of Col. Dalton, of Alexandria, 
atid after her marriage to William Bird, was known as 
*' the pretty bird of Virginia." Her eldest sister, who 
died young, had the honor of winning the heart and 
refusing the hand of the immortal Washington, when he 
was surveying lands for Lord Fairfax and only seventeen 
or eighteen years old ! The second sister^ofJVIrs. Cun- 
ningham's mother married Mr. Herbert,W3>o^vas-^SIler^ 
Tii£«^<is>conH©ct^<i- by mSh'rt-a§«Lwiik^h«a-WasJiingtoos^ad 

f^' FairfaxdT.,/?^^ • '^^^^^ J::ic^. A-^^ /^. V2^.-*^ ^ ^yC^^^^^Ar 

Col. Bird, the father of Mrs. Cunningham, had a large 
family of daughters, who were all remarkable for their 
beauty and accomphshments, and were great belles in 
Georgia. General McComb, of the United States Army, 
very appropriately dubbed the Colonel's residence " The 
Aviary," by which it was extensively known afterwards, 
and 80 called. One of his daughters married Benjamin 
Yancey, perhaps the most talented and highly gifted 
member of the South Carolina Bar at that time. He 
died very young, leaving two sons, whom I have already 
mentioned as the wards of Mr. Cunningham. Mrs. 
Cunningham had the reputation of being the most beau- 
tiful of all Col. Bird's lovely, talented and accomplished 
daughters. She was not only beautiful herself, but she 
had a love and taste for the beautiful. Her passion for 
flowers was unsurpassecj ; she collected them from all 



parts of the world. Her flowers and sliriibbery covered 
acres of ground around " Rose Monte," v/hich she 
watched over and cultivated with the care of a mother 
for her infant children. She had the honor of being the 
pioneer florist of the up country. Soon after her mar- 
riage and settlement at her husband's old family mansion, 
now more than one hundred years old, she had the honor 
and great pleasure of receiving a collection of rare flowers 
from Mount Yernon, sent her by Judge Bushrod "Wash- 
ington. Years afterwards, when I saw her flower garden 
and shrubbery, they were surpassingly beautiful, and 
laid ofl" with great taste and artistic skill. She was most 
generous, too, in the distribution of her rare and beauti- 
ful flowers and plants amongst her friends and acquaint- 
ances. Her nature was kind and generous in the extreme, 
as- well as lovely and spirited. She was also truly pious 
and religious, and all her life a devout member of the 
Presbyterian Church. She was sensitive — perhaps too 
sensitive — to the slightest wrong, and her frank and 
spirited nature prompted her to give expression to her 
sentiments and feelings. Indeed, she was, as I have 
often said, a model lady, wife, mother and friend. 

To Mrs, Cunningham belongs the distinguished honor 
of having suggested, and made the first efibrt, towards the 
organization of the Mount Yernon Association, for the 
purpose of purchasing the home of the illustrious Wash- 
ington, the Father of his Country, and keeping it as a 
sacred shrine for his countrymen to visit and there feel 
the inspiration of patriotism and public virtue. She 
heard with horror that it was likely to be sold to specu- 
lators, and urged her young and highly gifted daughter, 
Miss Pamela, to write an article on the subject for the 
newspapers. She did so, and entered into the project 
with all her mother's zeal, enthusiasm and jDatriotism. 
This article was fortunate in attracting public attention. 
It vas signed " A Southern Matron," and every one 



supposed it was written by a married lady of mature 
years. Through the influence of Miss Pamela Cunning- 
ham, the Hon. Edward Everitt was enlisted in the cause, 
and his oration on the Life and Character of Washington, 
which he delivered all over the United States, brought to 
the Association sixty or seventy thousand dollars. Private 
subscriptions, procured by the untiring energy and zeal 
of the fair "Southern Matron,'^ from the South, North, 
East and West, made up the necessary sum to make the 
purchase. During all this time, this remarkable and 
extraordinary daughter was in extreme ill health, and her 
physicians told her that if she persevered in her labors it 
would be fatal to her. But she expressed a willingness 
to die in so noble an undertaking. 

When the Association was organized by the ladies of 
the United States, Miss Pamela, who had accomplished 
the great work suggested by her mother, was unani- 
mously elected President of the Association, and forced 
to accept the position. She removed to Mount Yernon, >c 
and received the applause and well done of a grateful 
people. The civil war came on, and with it bitter sec- 
tional prejudices and hatred. There were those in the 
IS'orth, who, seeing a South Carolina lady presiding at 
Mount Yernon, felt like Haman seeing Mordecai sitting 
at the king's gate, and vented their ^l^e^ feelings in \1^M»^\ 
calumny and slander. With that proud spirit which 
belongs to her family and country, as well as her own 
nature, this true and noble hearted young lady resigned 
her exalted position and returned to her native home in 
South Carolina, her health and her fortune wrecked in 
the cause of her country and her own noble purpose of 
carrying out the patriotic suggestion of her mother. But 
history will do her justice, and as I said to her some 
years ago in the City of Washington, " her name will be 
associated, in all time to come, with that of the Father of 



his Country." This is glory and honor enough to have 
won for any fair maiden lady of tiie South. 

Little did Mrs. Cunningham think, when she made 
her suggestion to her invahd daughter, that she was 
imposing on her a task so herculean, a lahor of twenty 
years, which would bring her to death's door, and leave 
her almost penniless, with -tfeie^vii)^ slander Os^>^\^lka$!^ 
^^^S$(^i^fv'^^g^}^^^H^ casting for a time a cloud over her pure 
and spotless life, her public spirited and patriotic services 
and her sensitive womanly nature. The mother antici- 
pated nothing of this, but thought only of the national 
reproach. The grave of Washington falling into the 
hands of speculators and showmen! She felt, too, for 
her own family. Their blood mixed with that of the 
Washingtons who lay in that sacred vault ! 

Captain Robert Cunningham, the husband of Mrs. 
Louisa Cunningham, was a gentleman of education and 
literary taste. He read law with John C. Calhoun, and 
was one of his favorite pupils. But being a gentleman 
of very large fortune, he abandoned his profession and 
devoted himself to planting. Once or twice he served the 
people of Laurens in the Legislature. It is well known 
that his family were all loyalists in the Revolutionary 
war, but as he once said to Col. W. C. Preston, " History 
does not accuse them." They were officers under the 
British Government at the breaking out of the Revolu- 
tion, and adhered to their allegiance. The father of 
Captain Cunningham was deputy Surveyor- General of 
the Province, under Sir Egerton Leigh. His uncle, Rob- 
ert Cunningham, was a Brigadier General in the British 
service. John Cunningham, another brother, held some 
appointment under the royal government. In speaking 
of the Cunninghams of the Revolution, I remember to 
have heard the Hon. Samuel Earle, who was a gallant 
Whig officer in the war and knew every landholder 
above Columbia, say that there were not three more 



■worthy and respectable gentlemen in the upper country 
than the three Cunninghams I have mentioned. 

Bat suppose the leaders of the Revolution in South 
Carolina could have foreseen the present condition of 
their descendants, living under the government of their 
former slaves, led on by roguish carpet-baggers and scal- 
awags, v^ould they have rebelled ? Sooner would the 
Gadsdens, Pinckneys, Elliots, Hugers, Marions, SumtefS' 
and Pickenses have fallen on their swords like old 
Eomans than have brought such ignominy on their coun- 
try and descendants. 

The death of Mrs. Cunningham was sad in one respect. 
She had just returned to her desolate home, where in 
former days there was so much joy and happiness, troops 
of friends, and all the comforts that luxury could desire. 
It was deserted, and scarcely a living soul to be seen ! 
1^0 doubt the contrast weighed heavily on her heart, and 
may have hastened her death. The loss of fortune, the 
absence of her children and grand-children, with the 
remembrance of her public wrongs, were too much for 
her refined nature and feeling heart. Death came sud- 
denly to rescue her from all her troubles and carr}^ her 
pure, bright spirit to a world of bliss and Heavenly 
glory. Her daughter was summoned home too late to 
see her mother die, and now remains there in the saddest 
afiiiction, which was once her happy home. 

I have said that Mrs. Cunningham was my warm 
and steadfast friend through life. I now recall, with a 
melancholy pleasure, the many pleasant hours and days- 
1 have spent in her charming society, with her noble 
husband and fair daughter, at their hospitable mansion, 
amidst the flowers, books and luxuries of "Rose Monte." 
And I am happy in having this opportunity of paying 
an humble thou.2;h grateful tribute of respect to her 
memory. 



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